Windows Vista users can either see the old five locations on the left side of Windows Explorer if an application makes a call to the function of the old Api which was left in for backwards compatibility or something that is called Favorite Links which provides access to way more folders and resources.

A location on the hard drive is being used to store shortcuts to all folders and special folders that are shown in the Favorite Links panel. That location is by default C:/Users/username/Links. It can vary depending on your setup.

The easiest way however to add links to the Favorite Links is by dragging and dropping them right into the Windows Explorer window. Another possibility would be to open the location on the hard drive and drag and drop shortcuts into it. You can naturally remove any shortcut in the folder to remove the link from the Favorite Links panel.

That panel can be deactivates as well. If you do not need the Favorite Links panel and prefer a full screen Windows Explorer view without a side panel you can deactivate it by pressing the Organize button and choosing Layout > Navigation Panel from the menu.